Community Service

Roots & Shoots is looking forward to the coaches vs. eighth grade ultimate frisbee game that is happening on Wednesday, June 8 on Far Field from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.! Members of the BDS community can cheer on the players and participate in a Roots & Shoots friendraiser for Shelterbox, an incredible organization that provides life-saving aid to those affected by natural disasters. Roots & Shoots will teach volunteers about Shelterbox through interesting, engaging, and hands-on activities.

The Roots and Shoots middle school service learning club is excited to be accepting donations for Room to Grow. Room to Grow is a nonprofit organization that provides social worker support, parental education, and needed items for families living in poverty. Families receive this support throughout pregnancy, infancy, and until children are three years old.

We are collecting and organizing donations for Room to Grow here at Belmont Day now through Thursday, April 28. The Roots and Shoots club will also be volunteering at Room to Grow.

Roots and Shoots club advisors Leigh Twarog and Mary Ellen Coyne-Gordon chaperoned a group of eight middle school students on an outing to Perkins School for the Blind on Tuesday evening. Our students helped out with the Perkins School's Valentine's Day dance. The mature and articulate group demonstrated the Belmont Day values in action by participating with respect and empathy, kindness and patience. Ms.

Toy Drive Thank YouWe recently received this thank you message from the Bridget Brigade Foundation:

“With much gratitude, the Bridget Brigade Foundation thanks you for spreading cheer and smiles to children hospitalized during the holidays. Belmont Day School donated 80 toys, which were delivered to local hospitals. The student-made cards were a special addition and greatly appreciated. Thank you for being an important part of the Bridget Brigade this holiday season. Wishing you a very happy and healthy 2016!”

On Saturday, October 3 twenty-one Belmont Day students, parents, and faculty volunteered at Gaining Ground in Concord, an organic farm that donates all of its produce for hunger relief. Participants finished harvesting sweet potatoes, cleared the potato bed, and sorted sweet potatoes in the green house for curing at the farm. A wonderful day of fun for a good cause!

On Community Service Day in May, students and teachers worked hard to get our school garden ready for a fruitful season—and what a productive season it has been so far! Our organic garden has yielded several types of greens including kale and arugula; we've harvested sugar snap peas and the summer squash is now coming in. The fragrance of herbs—and the nearby honeybee hive—fills the air.

For the past eight years, second graders have worked with Gaining Ground, an organic farm in Concord that raises and distributes all of its produce to local hunger relief agencies. On Wednesday, students traveled to Gaining Ground and planted sunflowers and celeriac, weeded asparagus beds, and mulched flower beds. On Friday, as part of Community Service Day, students decorated reusable bags that will be used as part of the farm's Families First program.